1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus and method for indicating whether products are safe for consumption. More particularly, the present invention relates to an apparatus and method that not only identifies whether products are safe for consumption, but that also tracks the source, location, and destination of those products so they can be efficiently and effectively identified and recalled if and when they are not safe for consumption.
2. Background of the Related Art
The term “perishable” is used to refer to products that are subject to spoilage or decay. Such products have a measurable shelf-life, after which the product is no longer safe to use or consume. Perishable products include, but are not limited to, chilled and minimally processed foods and beverages, pharmaceuticals, chemicals, film, batteries, munitions, and even blood, each of which has its own unique shelf-life. Accordingly, the companies that make and/or sell those products are presented with the continuing problem of identifying which products have exceeded their shelf-life. And as a result, those companies not only have difficulty preventing the sale of perishable products that have exceeded their shelf-life, they also have significant difficulty recalling those products after they are sold. Similar difficulties arise when identifying food that has not exceeded its shelf-life but that is otherwise tainted or contaminated, such as by poor manufacturing, transportation, or storage conditions.
The inability to efficiently and effectively identify and recall spoiled or contaminated products is not only a serious problem for the companies that make and/or sell those products, it is a potentially life-threatening problem to the end users of those products (i.e., the people who consume those products). In 2010, for example, outbreaks of food poisoning involving products as varied as eggs, peanuts, and spinach sickened thousands of people and killed more than a dozen people. In 2008, a salmonella outbreak from contaminated peanut butter manufactured under unsanitary conditions sickened hundreds of people and may have killed as many as eight people. And in 2004, an arthritis drug was discovered to increase the risk of heart attacks and strokes in people who took the drug for at least eighteen months, for which the manufacturer of the drug ultimately paid $4.85 billion to settle 27,000 resulting lawsuits.
As those examples illustrate, the inability to efficiently and effectively identify and recall spoiled or contaminated products can not only cost the companies that make those products significant amounts of money, it can also harm the end users of those products. As a result, there is a need for an apparatus and method that not only identifies whether products are safe for consumption, but that also tracks the source, location, and destination of those products so they can be efficiently and effectively identified and recalled when they are not safe for consumption.